Accounting
The AICPA’s Mark Koziel: More upside than downside for accountants
Even as accountants worry about a host of pressing issues, there are strong reasons to be optimistic about the future of the profession, according to Mark Koziel the president and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs.
“We’ve had issues coming at us for decades, and in each and every instance we’ve tended to thrive,” he added.
As an example, he cited the long list of technological developments that were all supposed to take accountants’ jobs, from the desktop calculator and the personal computer, to Excel and blockchain — all of which ended up only helping to make accountants more productive.
“Every time, there’s a new development in technology, they want to put us out of business,” he joked.
And even in times of economic uncertainty, accountants have an edge: “Typically, we are the last to fall into a recession, and the first to come out of them, because as companies come out of a recession, they turn first to their CGMAs and their CPAs for help.”
With all that in mind, he noted that he wanted to change the title of his keynote from “Professional Issues Update” to “Professional Opportunities Update,” before diving into a wide-ranging discussion of the most important major trends and developments affecting accountants.
Among the areas he discussed were:
1. Changes at the IRS. The tax agency was able to make it through the spring filing season with service levels that were relatively consistent with previous years — but that may not be true in the fall, Koziel warned, as retirements and layoffs that were delayed to help the service make it through April 15 have gone into effect.
“In the heat of busy season this spring, there were all kinds of rumors and hearsay about what was happening at the agency, and we put out a press release just to members to say, ‘Please, stop reading the headlines. We talk to the IRS regularly, and as far as we can tell, service levels will be consistent with the past few years,’ and we were right. Members coming out of busy season said the same thing,” Koziel explained. “I don’t know that we can say that going into the fall busy season — the IRS has even fewer people than they had before.”
2. The fate of the PCAOB. As passed by the House of Representatives, the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill” includes a provision that would scrap the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and roll up its functions into the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We are having a lot of discussion about what the SEC/PCAOB thing will look like,” Koziel said. “It is still being discussed as the bill goes into the Senate side. I’d say it’s pretty likely. I don’t care if the PCAOB stays or if what it does rolls up into the SEC — but what an incredible opportunity for us to have a say in how inspections are done, and so on. The SEC, too, would like to look at things differently.”
“The inspection rules were written 20 years ago, and when we talk about audit transformation, we need to make sure those inspections match up with what we’re doing,” he added. “This is an incredible opportunity to do that.”
3, Private equity. While many are concerned about how the influx of PE money into the profession will reshape accounting — and Koziel was adamant about making sure that it doesn’t compromise quality, particularly in audit — he said firms need to be able to find the model that works for them, and that PE can teach some valuable lessons.
“What can we learn from private equity?” he asked. “Partner accountability. As much as we’ve talked about it, our governance never really allowed for partner accountability to occur in firms. It’s very true in PE that there’s partner accountability.”
4, Tariffs: Almost all business leaders (90% in the second quarter of 2025, according to a recent AICPA survey) believe that tariffs are creating business plan uncertainty — which creates an opportunity for accountants to offer meaningful guidance to clients, as they have in many previous eras of uncertainty.
“This is like the Paycheck Protection Program at the beginning of COVID — we take complex things and make them simple,” Koziel said. “Let’s stay on top of this and communicate with our clients on a regular basis.”
5. Staffing: AICPA chair Lexy Kessler, who joined Koziel in his keynote, reported that undergraduate enrollments in accounting are up for the third quarter in a row, a welcome development after years of serious concern about the profession’s pipeline shortage.
“We’re seeing results, but we’re not done yet,” she warned. “We need to keep our foot on the gas.”
Increased compensation for younger accountants and an uncertain economic environment have helped with the boost, but that isn’t all, Kessler said: “There’s some shifting in the marketplace — accounting has job stability, pay is looking better, students are seeing people from the profession out in classrooms, and they’re saying, ‘I had no ideas that’s what accountants do.'”
“I encourage everyone to change the story they’re telling,” she told the audience. Talk about the impact you have, not all the work it takes to make that impact.”
Koziel added some valuable advice for firm leaders from his time working at a Buffalo-based CPA firm in the 1990s: “When I was in charge of recruiting, I’d ask our partners, ‘Is this firm the right place for your kids?’ And if it’s not, fix it.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Republicans in his chamber expect to deliver on President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to exempt tips, overtime pay, Social Security and auto loan interest from taxes.
“I think that the president as you know campaigned hard on no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, Social Security, interest on car loans — those were all things that are priorities for the administration and they were addressed in the House bill and I expect they will be in the Senate as well,” Thune told reporters.
The House bill, in lieu of a direct tax cut on Social Security, which would violate Senate budget rules, provided a $4,000 bonus deduction for per taxpayer age 65 and older with incomes up to $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for married couples. The House provisions on tips, overtime, the elderly and car loans would all expire in 2029.
Thune’s comments come as Senate negotiators tweak the House-passed version of Trump’s giant tax package ahead of a self-imposed deadline to pass the measure before the July 4th holiday, with Thune saying Tuesday the Senate is very close to finishing its draft of the legislation.
Earlier Tuesday, House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, whose committee is responsible for tax legislation, warned that any Senate version of the tax package that doesn’t include the tips and overtime breaks would be “dead on arrival” in the House.
Several Republican senators including Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have expressed skepticism about the cost and economic wisdom of including the tax exemptions on tips and overtime pay. Senators have instead called for funds to be used to make temporary business tax breaks permanent.
Such a change would be a “no go” for House Republicans, Smith told Bloomberg TV.
The Senate is now considering the massive tax and spending package after it passed the House by a single vote last month. If the Senate changes the legislation, the House must approve the revised version.
Senator Josh Hawley, a populist Republican, said Trump told him Tuesday morning that tax-exempt tips and overtime, as well as a tax cut for the elderly, are the most important provisions in the bill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson also has urged senators not to remove or scale back provisions in the legislation that exempt tips and overtime pay from income tax through 2028.
“This is an important promise for us to keep,” Johnson told reporters earlier Tuesday.
The deal expands Sax’s presence in Monmouth County and strengthens its real estate and private client service capabilities by adding founders Charlie Anastasia and Steven Sewald.
Steven Sewald & Co. merged with Charles Anastasia to form Sewald & Anastasia in 2023. After nearly two years of growing their firm in South New Jersey, the two lifelong tax professionals and softball teammates saw the opportunity of joining Sax. For 30 years, they have served small to medium-sized businesses in markets such as construction, trucking, health care, and retail. This acquisition will bolster Sax’s capabilities in these vital sectors.
Anastasia, who has been managing partner of Sewald and Anastasia, will join Sax as a partner, helping to strengthen Sax’s real estate practice. Sewald will be joining Sax’s private client services practice as a director.
“This acquisition is strategic, as both Sax and Sewald & Anastasia are equally aligned in our service philosophies and our dedication to continued growth to best serve our clients,” said Sax managing partner Joseph Damiano in a statement. “We are excited to welcome Charlie and his team to Sax. This partnership is a significant milestone for Sax, as our firm looks forward to leveraging this partnership to deliver enhanced value and innovative solutions to its clients across the region.”
As a result of the deal, Sax is now a 62-partner firm with 367 total employees and now has five offices between New Jersey, New York, and Mumbai, India, and a remote team spanning 22 U.S. states. Will Walsh of 1LifeConsulting, LLC consulted on the transaction.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sax ranked No. 66 on Accounting Today‘s 2025 list of the
“I am thrilled to join Sax and contribute to the firm’s already impressive legacy,” Anastasia said in a statement. “This acquisition represents a unique opportunity to combine our strengths and deepen our commitment to delivering exceptional service to our clients. I look forward to working with Sax’s real estate practice and helping our clients navigate the complexities of the industry with innovative solutions and personalized guidance.”
In 2023, Sax merged in
Climate change-driven devaluations could drop corporate earnings up to 7.3% by 2035, a report found.
Extreme weather events like wildfires, hurricanes, floods and heatwaves are reshaping economies, disrupting supply chains, raising operational costs and threatening long-term business stability. Big Four Firm KPMG’s
Currently only 48% of companies quantitatively assess climate risks, despite its strategic and financial advantages and amid intensifying investor scrutiny. But business strategies will inevitably have to evolve in order to keep up with the ramifications of climate change.
Benjamin Fanjoy/Bloomberg
“In the near term, we are certainly seeing organizations increase their focus on wrapping their heads around immediate physical risks — to their assets, to their supply chains, to business resiliency,” Marcus Leach, KPMG’s managing director of deal advisory and strategy, said in the report. “A lot of this is still being handled manually, using more static models from historical data. It’s like looking at the one-in-100-year storm event as a benchmark, but that’s no longer enough.”
“In the longer term, you will see mandates around more dynamic modeling, driven by AI and better computing power, to predict things like convective storms, flooding, and wildfires,” he continued. “The risk focus will shift from static assumptions to real-time, constantly updated models. Companies that do not integrate this planning into their risk strategies will be caught off guard as climate events continue to escalate in frequency and severity.”
(Read more:
One of the biggest challenges businesses face in meeting their sustainability goals is lack of funding directed toward areas like upgrading infrastructure, diversifying supply chains and securing stable energy sources.
“The reality is that many organizations have identified the risks, but they haven’t necessarily done the work to adapt,” KPMG’s U.S. sustainability leader Maura Hodge said in the report. “They know there’s a 27% chance of their operations being interrupted by a flood, but they haven’t built redundancy into their supply chains or made infrastructure changes to mitigate those risks.”
Another major challenge is the ever-changing and inconsistent adoption of regulation across jurisdictions.
“What we’re trying to help companies understand is that reporting is not just about compliance — it’s about strategy and value creation,” Hodge said. “If you’re spending all your time and resources getting compliant, but not using that data to inform business decisions, then you’re missing the point.”
“Historically, only companies that wanted to be ‘leaders’ in sustainability did climate reporting, and they could pick and choose what they reported,” Hodge added. “Now, with SEC regulations and Europe’s CSRD coming into play, transparency and comparability are being forced onto the market.”
The KPMG report also discussed topics like artificial superintelligence, quantum computing, space economy, computing infrastructure and advanced manufacturing.
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